Bangert: More dominoes fall in Chauncey Hill deal near Purdue

Neighborhood cheers as developer turns away from project near New Chauncey homes to go all in on a prime piece of State Street

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Yummy Time restaurant will share a building with a Domino's franchise at 616 Stadium Ave. in West Lafayette. The building had been the site of a redevelopment plan that the owner now says has been abandoned.(Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)Buy Photo

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – As the dominoes continue to fall in West Lafayette’s near-campus development scene a week after owners of Chauncey Hill Mall said they’re looking to put up something new a few blocks from Purdue University, this story starts with an actual Domino’s going in about a mile away.

This week, developer Marc Muinzer said he signed a lease for a Domino’s franchise at 616 Stadium Ave., in a 7,700-square-foot space a block from Armstrong Hall on the northern edge of campus that once upon a time was the home to a Follett’s bookstore location and other uses since then.

More than just news about a new franchise outlet for pizza, the move marks an end for a larger, one-block redevelopment plan that popped up earlier this year and had been lining up as a standoff between Muinzer’s Chicago-based South Street Capital and those looking out for the residential New Chauncey Neighborhood.

Muinzer, who emerged a week ago as one of two major players with plans for three prime Chauncey Hill properties along State Street, said he wants to concentrate on his Village area plans, instead.

That includes what he envisions as a 17-story residential/retail/office complex at a site called Chauncey Hill Annex, at the corner of State Street and Chauncey Avenue.

“While reviewing redevelopment options, I received over 20 offers to lease the 7,700-square-feet of vacancy that existed when we acquired the building (at 616 Stadium Ave. last summer),” Muinzer said. Yummy Time, an Asian restaurant, would remain in the other part of the property.

“I felt it was an opportunity to offer a seasoned business operator a flagship location that is adjacent to the New Chauncey Neighborhood and across the street from Purdue University,” Muinzer said. “I am 100 percent focused on our Chauncey Annex proposal.”

News on the pizza front wasn’t lost on Peter Bunder. In March, Bunder cast a reluctant vote to allow the proposed, 16-story Rise at Chauncey complex, one of three 10-plus-story retail/residential developments approved in 2017 on or near State Street in the Village area. Before Bunder voted yes, the West Lafayette City Council president called out Muinzer by name in a call to arms, of sorts, against development pushing into New Chauncey Neighborhood.

This week, Bunder was cheering Muinzer’s refocused priorities.

“The neighborhood’s glad there isn’t a large apartment building on that block,” Bunder said. “Whatever redevelopment happens between Northwestern (Avenue) and Stadium (Avenue) and Meridian (Street) and those streets on the way to Grant (Street), it hopefully will be thought out instead of a one-off with a large development. … The butt-end of an apartment project, we really don’t like that.”

City officials, who hold considerable sway over any project aiming to go beyond the 35-foot threshold in West Lafayette’s zoning codes, handed South Street Capital’s plans to the West Lafayette Historic Preservation Commission.

Bunder, who also serves on the Historic Preservation Commission, said there’s hope in his district that more people look to flip rental houses into owner-occupied, single-family homes in New Chauncey Neighborhood. How much of that is possible, Bunder couldn’t predict. And if it happened, how much of that would be driven by a load of new student housing going up a mile away near the Village versus driven by families trying to wedge themselves into the West Lafayette school district, he couldn’t say, either.

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The Chauncey Hill Annex Wednesday, September 27, 2017, in the Chauncey Village in West Lafayette.(Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)

“But that’s the hope,” Bunder said. “It was clear to me, at least, that the Stadium Avenue project wasn’t going to do us any favors on that.”

Muinzer’s plans for the Chauncey Hill Annex come with no guarantees at this point.

In a deal that breaks up what’s known as Chauncey Hill Partnership, Muinzer would buy Chauncey Hill Annex – home of a Jimmy John’s and AJ’s Burgers and Beef locations, among others – and State Street Corner, a property that has been boarded up for the past five years at the corner of State Street and Northwestern Avenue.

Loren King, CEO of Lafayette-based Trinitas and a co-owner of Chauncey Hill Partnership now, would get the 2.5-acre Chauncey Hill Mall site at the top of State Street hill. King told the J&C in September that he expects it will take a year to come up with specific plans.

Erik Carlson, West Lafayette’s development director, has said the city is ready to work with Muinzer on something similar to the five-story retail/residential building the city approved in 2012 at State Street Corner.

As for a high-rise at Chauncey Hill Annex, Carlson has said, the city would be more comfortable waiting until 2019 to get started to see how well the market absorbs the 2,100 new beds coming with The Hub, Hub Plus and Rise at Chauncey projects that will be the tallest ever for West Lafayette.

Muinzer said he wants to get rolling now, with hopes of having something open by 2020.

Bunder said he’s been wary about the high-rise trend along State Street. He said he’s OK with the city getting started now.

“I’m eager for Marc to go ahead and start making his proposals so we can start debating whether they’re crazy or useful,” Bunder said. “I don’t think there’s any reason the city needs to make him wait or to try to make him wait, because it’s probably going to be a long negotiation anyway.”

Muinzer’s deal with Domino’s on Stadium Avenue says he’s ready for that to start, too.